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Thousands of units of abalone.
- A Gansbaai man is on trial on Monday charged with murdering three people in an abalone smuggling turf war.
- The State alleges that the three were shot in a dispute between two gangs controlling poaching in the area.
- Last year a similar trial heard that the motive for a murder was over refusal to pay a cut to a gang.
A case involving a gang fight and three murders over the poaching and smuggling of a little mollusc eaten by the rich will resume in the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
The scene is the peaceful seaside town of Gansbaai in the Overstrand area, a strip of coast where abalone nestles against rocks, waiting to be farmed and exported to high-rolling clients.
But, working between the formal commercial abalone farms, is a network of smugglers with a workforce ranging from divers to drivers.
In his book Poacher, conservation biologist and writer Kimon de Greef details the human chains moving the abalone from rock to shore to vehicle, the lookouts, many of whom worked in conservation themselves, and the fierce contest over abalone breeding sites.
In some cases immature abalone is taken out of desperation which ends up stripping an area of any abalone at all.
READ | 8 questions to Kimon de Greef, author of Poacher
Also known locally as perlemoen or "perly", the delicacy provides an income not just for the head honchos, but for the poachers' families. The syndicates operate as far afield as Gqeberha.
Also in the supply chain are abalone driers, setting up rows of racks and fans in nondescript suburban homes, to lighten the load for export.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned in December that the updated red list of threatened species found 20 of the world's 54 abalone species were now threatened with extinction. This is attributed to unsustainable extraction and poaching.
The case due to be heard on Monday is the trial of Redowaan de Bruyn.
The State alleges that at the behest of the Terrible Josters gang, De Bruyn shot and killed Ashwan Griffiths, and Attie King, while they were sitting in a Fortuner in Dahlia Street on 13 July 2019.
Rubin Claasen, not yet 18, happened to be standing in the road and was also shot dead.
De Bruyn was arrested in a bedroom at an undisclosed address on 23 July 2019, and two firearms were recovered during the search.
The State alleges these match the ballistics report from the murders.
In the indictment, the State contends that the control of poached abalone in the Overstrand area was being contested by two main rival gangs - the Terrible Josters and the Junior Mafia.
READ | Shell shock: Abalone worth more than R10 million seized within days in Western Cape
"The accused is a member of the 'Terrible Josters' gang, while two of the deceased persons belong to the rival gang. The violent clashes between members of these gangs are motivated by a desire to control the illegal abalone trade in the area," the indictment reads.
Last September, Junior Mafia gangster Ronaldo van der Berg accepted a plea and sentencing deal for murdering Cameron Marc Padayachee.
Padayachee refused to pay the gang a cut of his haul for letting him operate in their territory.
That was also in Blompark and the murder occurred while Padayachee and his employee were fixing his vehicle in front of his house.
It was the second attempt at killing Padayachee, and with eight shots pumped into his body, he did not survive. His children were playing in the car at the time.
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In his plea deal, Van der Berg explained that Padayachee refused to pay his "fee".
The prosecutor during that trial said Padayachee was killed to show him and other abalone poachers what would happen to them if they refused to give the gang their cut.
In that case, a sentence of 30 years for murder was handed down, as well as 10 years for attempted murder, 10 years for unlawful possession of a gun, and five years for unlawful possession of ammunition.
De Bruyn is charged with three murders, unlawful possession of firearms, belonging to a gang, and furthering the work of a gang.
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